Originally Posted by Rain Man:
I can see that. But I got a good burger at my lunch place, and that type of thing biases my opinions upward.
What's Needles Highway?
It’s outside of Rapid City in Custer National Forrest near Mount Rushmore. Supposedly a Governor is South Dakota laid it out using a pack mule. Very, very pretty. [Reply]
Originally Posted by JimNasium:
It’s outside of Rapid City in Custer National Forrest near Mount Rushmore. Supposedly a Governor is South Dakota laid it out using a pack mule. Very, very pretty.
That looks interesting. I don't think I knew to do that.
I'm remembering now too that we did "glamping" near Mount Rushmore, spending the night in a supposedly fancy tent "with views of Mount Rushmore". My wife really liked it, but I didn't see the appeal. It was kind of cold and we had to put wood in a little heater, and Mount Rushmore was just a blip of light in the distance. We had a regular bed, which was nice. I'd give that a grade of D, but my wife said she would like to glamp again somewhere. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Rain Man:
I can see that. But I got a good burger at my lunch place, and that type of thing biases my opinions upward.
What's Needles Highway?
Needles is wonderful S Dakota through the Custer National Forest. It's beautiful but a real winder have Dramamine if you're not driving and have kids. One of my favorites along with the Tetons and Glacier NP.
Fuck that crowded tourist trap Yellowstone. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Rain Man:
I did a Great Plains circle back in 2018 or 2019. We did this in chronological order.
1. Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse. Grade: C. It really is a bit of an abomination against nature. It was kind of cool to see the rough shape of Crazy Horse still being carved, though.
2. Black Hills. Grade: B. If you don't do a lot of western landscapes you'd give it a higher grade. It was pretty cool, but I've toured a lot of the west already.
3. Deadwood. Grade: C. Just stopped for lunch. Kind of okay touristy town.
4. Devil's Tower. Grade: A. You don't have to spend much time here, but you really should spend some time here. It's a very unique place.
5. Little Big Horn. Grade: A. This is perhaps the best historic battle site I've ever visited. They've really worked to understand what happened, and they lay it out in a great way. (We also visited Big Hole Battlefield, which is not nearly as well documented, but it's got some good historical context.)
6. Glacier National Park. Grade: B. The Going-To-The-Sky Road is amazing. You really should do that. The rest of the park is a bunch of trees and stuff. The drive up there is kind of interesting because there are a bunch of road signs in a really funky native language.
7. Yellowstone National Park. Grade: A. Okay, I'll confess that I'm not into driving 30 miles in the park to see some mud bubble. The geothermal stuff is overrated. But it's cool to see the buffalo (err, bison), and we got to see a bunch of tourists stand around near a mother grizzly bear and her cubs, though I didn't get the exciting ending to that that I hoped. We stayed at a couple of different lodges, and the view at the one on the big lake is worth the stay. We also drove through the Tetons on our way out, which are very pretty and look very different than the Colorado Rockies.
Oh, I also achieved a lifelong dream of visiting the town of Lame Deer, Montana. I'm a bit of a mapophile, and I've always seen the town of Lame Deer on maps out there in the middle of Big Sky country, and wondered what it was like. I won't give it a grade because it's not really a tourist destination. We went through town and stopped for lunch at the student center of Dull Knife College, which was the only restaurant we could find. I was pretty excited to do this.
As a native Montanan, Glacier is better than Yellowstone in every way. The park is stunning, no idea how you didn’t find more than trees. You may have to hike a little to see all that Glacier has to offer. [Reply]
Originally Posted by JimNasium:
Oh, and even a good burger wouldn’t change my Deadwood grade, but I did make the mistake of staying the night there in an awful casino.
Gambling destroyed the old Deadwood I grew up with. Definitely not worth a stop unless you want to see the saloon Wild Bill was shot in. The Black Hills are a poor man's trip if you can't afford the time to go to the Rockies. But if you're driving west I'd think a couple hours out of your way to see Rushmore and Devil's Tower is a smart move. [Reply]
Originally Posted by mlyonsd:
Gambling destroyed the old Deadwood I grew up with. Definitely not worth a stop unless you want to see the saloon Wild Bill was shot in. The Black Hills are a poor man's trip if you can't afford the time to go to the Rockies. But if you're driving west I'd think a couple hours out of your way to see Rushmore and Devil's Tower is a smart move.
It's not even the actual saloon. The entire town was destroyed a couple of times; IIRC, once by fire and once by flood. What they call the No. 10 Saloon isn't even located in the same spot as the original. [Reply]
We did Yellowstone last year. Was crowded but beautiful. Spent time in Cheyenne and Cody. There is a cool museum in Cody. Hit Idaho Falls then made our way back through Jackson.
We are doing Glacier next month and will head up to Banff as well. Really looking forward to tis trip.
Never found any great restaurants in our Wyoming travels, which was surprising. Nothing was bad, just nothing special. We always seem to find at least one memorable place on our various trips.